Lack of transportation, storage facilities irks farmers

As the wheat harvesting is picking pace in the state, most farmers are facing trouble to store wheat and take it to the mandis

Amid restrictions imposed in the wake of Covid-19, with a fewer number of farmers allowed to enter mandis, they are finding it difficult to store their produce.

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Lack of storage space and transportation has become a cause for concern for them.

As the wheat harvesting is picking pace in the state, most farmers are facing trouble to store wheat and take it to the mandis.

“This is a race against time as we cannot afford to delay the harvesting. But we cannot sell our produce until we receive a call from the mandi”, said Madan Numberdar, a farmer from Dhanokheri village of Karnal district, who is waiting to sell his produce of four acres.

“Not only space storage, but we are also facing problem to take our produce to mandis due to lack of transportation as we don’t have a tractor-trailer,” said another farmer Balbir Singh of Indri.

Since the ahrtiyas or the commission agents have all the rights to decide the farmers who could bring their produce to the mandi, the farmers alleged that the commission agents give importance to the big farmers only as they ignore small farmers in the list provided to the market committee.

Officials of the state agriculture marketing board said, “We have already prepared the list of farmers registered under the Meri Fasal Meri Mera Byora portal and it is up to the commission agents to decide.”

As per the reports collected from the different grain markets in the region, the mandi secretaries have fixed the numbers of farmers as per the procurement record of the commission agents and the commission agents are allowed to procure the wheat of their farmers as per their capacity.

“Small farmers should be given priority as they don’t have space and transportation facilities but as per the norms, we allow six farmers of big ahrtiyas and three farmers of small ahrtiyas on a daily basis to maintain the balance. The commission agents give importance to big farmers,” said a mandi secretary of Kurukshetra district.

On the other hand, some big farmers, who have not taken advance from the commission agents are also selling their produce directly to the seed companies even above the Minimum Support Price.

“I have already sold around 350 quintals of wheat at ₹205,5 per quintal ₹130 per quintal above the MSP of ₹1,925 to a seed company in Naharpur,” said Surender Singh, a farmer from Radaur of Yamunanagar district.

Rain pours trouble for farmers in Hisar

Light to moderate shower in the Hisar region added trouble for the farmers who have reached the grain market and waiting for the purchasing agency to procure wheat and mustard.

However, the Meteorological department located at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) had already predicted light to moderate shower in the entire state and had issued a special advisory for the farmers that they must cover the reaped crop properly.

Head of the department of meteorology and agriculture department of CCSHAU said, “The farmers must strictly follow the advisory of the meteorology department to keep their produce safe at home or at the grain market. The same condition will prevail until April 25.”

In Sirsa, the local administration has increased the number of purchasing centres from 60 to 186. The farmers also claimed that they are getting many facilities such as drinking water and food on time. However, they said that there are no shed facilities in these centres which is a matter of concern.

(With inputs from Bhaskar Mukhejee)